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“What’s Going On” at 40

By Renee Michael June 1, 2011 5:33 pmJune 1, 2011 5:33 pm

“What’s Going On,” Marvin Gaye’s groundbreaking 1971 album whose socially sensitive subject matter Motown boss Berry Gordy Jr. initially believed would ruin Gaye’s career, is 40 years old this year. And as we all know now, the album, contrary to Gordy’s fears, became a critical and commercial success. More important, its message has remained timely and relevant over virtually its entire four decades of existence.

“What’s Going On” has been called “Marvin’s finest moment,” “a singular, exquisitely spiritual” recording and an example of how “social statement and pure soul can peacefully coexist on a gorgeous yet gritty concept album.” Rolling Stone, in 2003, ranked it No. 6 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. But, interestingly, when Gaye wrote the liner notes meant to introduce the world to his new release, he kind of buried the lede, as journalists say, refusing to give any “general information type stuff” about what his album would offer to an audience that came to include several generations of listeners. Instead a somewhat subdued Gaye, still recovering from the 1970 death of Tammi Terrell, his friend and singing partner extraordinaire, expressed his faith in his fans’ ability to figure it out for themselves.

“If you like the artist well enough to buy his or her album, you don’t have to be told how groovy it is, or which tunes you should dig, or how great his or her majesty is,” he wrote. “I mean the fact that people just won’t let us think for ourselves really bugs me! Now just because I like “Mercy Mercy Me” and the one that says “Save The Children,” shouldn’t influence anyone. And you shouldn’t have to pay any special attention to the lyrics on “Flyin’ High In The Friendly Sky” just because I think you ought to.”

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…